Blog - Optimizing Website Metrics for Better ROI

Synchronizing your website with digital campaigns offers a holistic view of the effect your marketing efforts have on revenue. We talked about the trifecta of these channels on “How to Measure Digital Marketing Metrics and ROI,” but here we’re going to get into the nitty-gritty of website metrics specifically. Now, I love me some numbers, but it’s sometimes a little boring to be talking metrics, am I right? Instead, we’re going to approach your website in a way most people got their start in business: a lemonade stand!

Now let’s squeeze some lemons!

Audience analysis is arguably the most important task informed by your website metrics. These metrics answer the question: “am I reaching my ideal customer?” A quick glance at age, gender, location, and language can tell you if something is up. You don’t have the resources yet to sell your lemonade to someone a couple of towns over. So, focus your efforts on what you can impact now. It’s important to look at devices and tech and interests. Are the majority of your visitors using their phones to look at your website? Make sure your site is mobile-friendly and quick to load. Are you hitting the right age range but not converting? Look at their interests and check if they align with your services or products. These metrics help confirm if your website visitors reflect the buyer persona you created.

Let’s differentiate visitors to visits with users, sessions, and pageviews. Users are unique visitors that have come to your site, which in itself is made up of new visitors and returning visitors who have come for the second time or more. Sessions are the total number of visits to your site while pageviews are the number of pages visited. Let’s say a neighbor visits your lemonade stand (let’s call the stand “My Main Squeeze”) three times and each time debates between four different menu items. On a website that would result in one returning user, three sessions, and 12 page views. How do you determine an engaged user and session? Take a look at the average session duration and pages/session. If most visitors are spending less than five seconds and not visiting other pages, then it’s likely an accidental click or immediate loss of interest, making your other metrics less impressive. That’s the equivalent of people walking past My Main Squeeze without even looking at you or saying hello back. Rude!

You have your visitors, now how are you going to retain them? Let’s talk about site content! If you don’t have content your visitors find valuable, then no one is going to stay. Someone might not want regular lemonade but is interested in trying the brownies, sliced fruit, or spicy mango lemonade. Page metrics show you the most viewed pages and average time spent, along with the least viewed pages. By analyzing the behavior flow report, you’ll be able to see how far down into your website they dig and the interactions they make along the way. Take a look at these metrics: session duration, bounce rate, exit rate, and exit pages. These tell you how much time visitors are spending on your site and at which point the pages turn them away. Look at those failing pages and ascertain a reason as to why they are causing your visitors to bounce. Is this page loading too slowly? Does it lack the content the visitor expected? You can find out by looking at search terms and see precisely what they are looking for. Perhaps the content is on your website but not easily accessible. Find the weak spots in your site, test and fix them to keep your visitors engaged.

How did people find My Main Squeeze? Maybe it’s word of mouth, the sign with directions you posted a couple of blocks away, or your choice of location. Find what is bringing you the most traffic and capitalize on it! You can find the answers under the traffic metrics channels, source/medium, and referrals. Channels show you sessions brought on by social media, search engines, email and more. Source/Medium offer the same insight but specific to website or service. Referrals are as you could have guessed: where your website was referred from. Are you running several paid campaigns across these channels that lead to your website? Dig even further with acquisition metrics like search query, AdWords campaigns, and URL parameters to see which campaigns are driving the most results. By looking at this information, you will be able to determine where to focus your digital marketing spend. You might learn that you get more customers from cute signs you put up over sending your little brother with samples down the block. Put up more signs and tell your brother to stop eating the samples and help out with the new rush your signs brought in!

With so many metrics to measure on strengthening your website, how does this all apply to selling more lemonade? With a robust, well-rounded website and digital marketing strategy, you’ll have a better chance of converting visitors into customers. Saving the best for last, be sure to set up different goals—such as subscribing to your newsletter, registering for an event, filling out a contact form, or making a purchase—and attribute value for each conversion, be it a transaction or future lead. These metrics measure the end goal of your website: to generate awareness and revenue. As you continue to work on your website, you will see changes in goal completions. What on your website is producing the most value? Explore the funnel visualization and reverse goal path functions and follow the path to the point of consumption. Where did they start, where did they go and how did they end up converting? If something is working, keep doing it and think about how to make it even better! By selling your customers on the brownies, it assists in the sale of lemonade to wash it down. This can also show you if they stopped short of a goal completion—another way to improve the user experience. Did a potential customer stop short of a lemonade purchase because you didn’t have correct change? Keep more change handy! Make the process as smooth as possible to remove time for doubt.

So, what’s the main takeaway from this blog? Finesse your website to squeeze out as many goal completions and conversions as possible. With some good old-fashioned marketing know-how, My Main Squeeze visitors will have a better chance of flowing through the funnel and sipping lemonade. Take a look at the metrics I’ve shared here and start testing. What other metrics and insights do you have in mind when looking at your website? Share them in the comments below!